The National Examination Board of Nepal (NEB) last week postponed the Grade 12 board exams that were scheduled to begin today. This was the culmination of a week-long struggle by grade 12 students who went to social media platforms and made #CancelNEBExams a trending topic within the country, reaching as far as 80,000 tweets. The decision on the part of the NEB is indeed pretty sensible, given the country is trying to get through the throes of the third wave of the Covid-19 pandemic.

However, many students face the uncertainty of their academic future with the exams being postponed indefinitely. Grade 12 is an iron gate for 372,000 students this year. It is through these exams that these students will pursue their future academic commitments and their dreams. The postponement of the exams will inevitably delay the admission process for prospective undergraduate students. Students planning to apply for scholarship schemes provided by various organisations and colleges are especially at a disadvantage.

Also at stake is the future of the students planning to go abroad for further education. Many foreign universities ask for the results of other qualifying exams such as SAT and IELTS to accompany the board exam results. Preparations for these extra-qualifying exams take months, and students trying to apply abroad with the aid of such extra-qualifying exams will likely miss the January 2022 deadline.

The NEB also needs to consider the psychology of the students. The young scholars mostly have a healthy fear of exams. However, in a situation where the Covid-19 cases remain high, and the colleges and schools have pointed out that health guidelines are close to impossible to adhere to, the students will find their fears amplified to excessive levels. This will inevitably bring the validity of the exams into question. After all, the final exams should not be based on evaluation; they should instead be based on assessment.

What's more, not every student has equal access to quality education in Nepal. While a vast majority of students enrolled in public and governmental schools lack basic access to educational tools to keep up with changing times, private school students have comparatively easier access to such tools. This leaves a vast majority of the student population unable to compete with their peers on a national scale. Therefore, one-size-fits-all solutions should not be pursued for the Grade 12 exams.

Alternative solutions

In light of this conundrum, the NEB should pursue other methods of evaluation so that the students are certain about their academic futures. There are various alternative modalities that can be employed to ensure that the students excel without having to lose an academic year. One such modality is internal evaluation, which educationists have long been rooting for, and for a good reason. Internal evaluation based on previous assignments, previous exam records, and practical files is an option that should be considered seriously. India, Saudi Arabia, Mexico and many other countries have conducted their own national board exams by using internal evaluation methods. While some educational officials have legitimate concerns about the impartiality of internal assessments, it will not be difficult to find a solution. The students of the academic year 2077 BS who took their SEE exams also had internal evaluations. Students receiving above 80 percentile had all of their internal evaluations supervised and surveyed by the NEB. A similar set-up, containing many checks and balances, can and should be an option for Grade 12 students.

Similarly, the Economic Survey Report published by the Ministry of Finance for FY 2019-2020 reported that 75 percent of Nepal had access to the internet at the start of 2020. The Nepal Telecommunications Authority’s (NTA) recent report found that around 91 percent of people (27.76 million people) have access to the internet. This means that online exams and evaluations must become a serious option for the students while also ensuring that the students who lack access to the internet are provided with the same.

Moreover, many students like myself appearing for the Grade 12 exams have had their classes conducted online throughout the year. The claim that students do not have access to the internet to facilitate online exams questions the validity of the data published in the reports by the Ministry of Finance and the NTA themselves. Suppose the NEB does not wish to go for a fully online exam. In that case, a hybrid online and internal evaluation modality can also be an option.

Another solution that the NEB can employ is present within our own country’s political setup—federalism. Every federal province/district must have their Covid-19 case-load evaluated, and depending upon said case-load, the government must differentiate provinces/districts which can take physical exams and which cannot, and take further steps for alternative modalities accordingly. Other evaluation methods, such as research project papers, critical analysis projects, or even simple viva-voce methods taken up by various colleges and universities this year can also be considered alternatives.

As students, we would not like the NEB to compromise on the academic standard that has to be met globally. We would definitely not want anyone to question the validity or impartiality of the NEB exam results. It is necessary to maintain the quality of the exams, but the future of the students should also not be compromised either. Therefore, as the current situation warrants, the NEB must come up with alternative modalities for the Grade 12 exams that are a win-win for all.